The Democratic Alliance has adopted a constitutional amendment to recall any public representative who brings the organisation into disrepute, loses the confidence of the party or demonstrates incompetence among other factors.

The amendment was adopted on Sunday, on the final day of the party’s elective congress in Tshwane.

The legislative change is believed to have been spurred by the challenges the party has faced with embattled Cape Town mayor Patricia De Lille who is expected to face a disciplinary hearing on charges of misconduct.

De Lille believes there is a plot by some in the party to have her pushed out of public office. In addition to the internal party charges she faces, she also faced a motion of no confidence earlier this year, which was table by her own caucus.

However, the motion to have her removed failed after opposition parties in the Cape Town council protected her. The newly adopted regulation, will better equip the party to deal with public representatives whose performance it is no longer happy with.

But it is not expected to affect De Lille whose disciplinary processes had already begun before congress took place.

De Lille has been banned from attending this weekend’s gathering as part of the conditions of the probe against her.

Before the amendment accepted this weekend, the party’s federal council had no powers to compel a public representative to be removed from public office.

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The National Health Laboratory Services finally admitted to a bottleneck last week, after denying there were any issues since April. According to the service, the backlog of 80 000 tests started in the first week of May